Chiang Mai

In the morning we got up, geared up, took the bike out and went to see a waterfall before we headed to Chiang Mai. Afterwards we grabbed a tuk tuk and off we went to the airport.

We landed in Chiang Mai to find even more smoke and pollution. We were heartbroken as we had heard so many amazing things about this city. The pollution really is so awful. We even saw articles in the paper about how the air is poisoning people in the North. It is a terrible situation.

One of my favorite sayings is to “bloom where you are planted.” Sometimes I am better at it than other times, but here in Chiang Mai, I was going to bloom. We found a cute little hotel called Gap’s House, which was a little tropical oasis in the middle of the old town. Once we got situated we went out for a walk, saw some of the temples (wats), had an early dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Huen Phen, which was so delicious and the interior of the restaurant was absolutely gorgeous! There were buddhas, carved wood, and pottery all over the place! I just loved it!!!

After dinner we went to the Fish Spa, where you put your feet in tanks of little fish and they nibble all of the dead skin off. It tickles so much but your feet feel so amazing afterwards!!!! It was insane!!! Later I went to the Saturday night market to check out the town and get the feeling for the city while Adam planned where we would go next.

I came home with a terrible headache from the pollution and smoke, and together we decided we would leave the next morning at 5am. My dear friend Ina told me about a little island the Andaman Sea, so after a little research, we booked flights, hired a tuk tuk to pick us up at the crack of dawn, had a margarita at a litte pink converted minivan called the Bongo (so cool!!!! I will look for a photo later ) and off to sleep for 3 hours.